COMM 2679 - Reflective Journal: Leadership, Storytelling, and Praxis

This reflective journal analyzes personal and professional values in relation to leadership and storytelling skills. It explores the author's strengths and weaknesses, aligning personal values with effective leaders like Bill Gates. The journal identifies situations requiring strong leadership and reflects on incorporating these learnings into work or educational environments. The reflection emphasizes self-motivation, teamwork, and the need for improved critical thinking and confidence in leadership roles. It concludes by highlighting the importance of building self-confidence and conflict resolution skills for effective leadership.

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Leadership and corporate story telling

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Introduction
When a person directs another person for accomplishment of any course of action and when
that person has a significant number of followers then the person is termed as leader. The
entire process is known as Leadership. There are various types of leadership. They are
process leadership, trait leadership, democratic leadership and many more (Sharma and Jain,
2013). Any person who wants to become a leader should possess few personal and
professional values. The aim of this reflective journal is to emphasize on my professional
values and ability to become a leader. The essay will also discuss about the skills which
various efficient leaders across the word possess and how this skill can be learned by me so
that I can incorporate while working in a real work environment.
Reflection on personal values
In this part of the essay I will focus on my personal and professional values which can help
me to walk towards the path of becoming a leader. As a person I think I am liberal and easy
going. This the reason I have the ability to hang out with different kinds of people without
any awkwardness. I belief that each and every one has a different set of values and to become
a leader it is important to be comfortable with all kinds of human beings. Most of my
personal values have been developed from the values which my family follows. My family
taught me to respect others, be passionate about any work. Over the years I have understood
that there is a thin line between discussing or debating an issue with others. In my school and
college, I have always tried to participate in healthy discussion instead of quarrelling with
other people.
Reflection on professional values
Building professional values is very important for each and every one who aspires to involve
themselves in a corporate environment. Over the years of my education I have developed few

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strong professional values which might help me in the near future. I am very self-motivated. I
keep myself motivated in every situation even though the situation is not in favor of me. I
responsibly handle every work and try to complete it with utmost seriousness and
responsibility. I have the ability to fit in to a group very easily. In every organization,
employers seek for people with positive attitude. I always try to maintain a positive attitude
towards everything. It is important to spread positivity in any working environment. This
helps in the formulation of an efficient team. In an organization it is important to perform in
team. Therefore, getting involved in the team is of utmost important. Integrity is also
important. While introspecting I have understood that I possess the quality of integration.
Finally, the most important professional value is honesty. It is important to remain honest
while carrying out any business operation. My family has taught me to remain honest in
every situation no matter what maybe the consequences is.
Aligning my values with an effective leader
Over the years this world has witnessed various leaders in the field of business and politics.
There are few common skills which is possessed by all successful leaders across the world.
Creative thinking is an important factor of leadership. Most of the leaders across the word has
the ability to think critically about every situation (Puccio, Mance & Murdock, 2010). Bill
Gates who is considered as one of the effective leader in today’s world possess some
important traits. Bill Gates always have a positive attitude towards everything in this world.
Bill Gates who is considered as one of the richest man in this planet always said that success
of a person should not be the reason for his/her distraction. According to him a positive
attitude should be shown towards success and one should stop becoming over confident once
they start enjoying success. As discussed earlier I have always been positive in every aspect
of my life. This is how I can synch my values with the values of Bill Gates.

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Leaders or Chief executive officers of an organisation should be responsible enough to
develop a strategy and promote that for the betterment of the organisation or people in
general (Herman, 2016). When Bill Gates started his organisation he immediately took the
responsibility of shaping the organisation the way he wants. He is considered as one of the
most important person who is utterly responsible for the modern age of computers. Along
with taking responsibility Bill Gates also shared his responsibility with other members of his
organisation. This feature of Bill Gates also played a very important role in making him a
successful leader. In the previous part of the report I have stated that I am responsible. I
responsibly try to accomplish any course of action which is given to me. Though I feel that I
am responsible but I need to learn how to share responsibilities with others by observing thse
efficient leaders.
There exists a direct relationship between leadership and team work. In any business or
political environment, a competent leader can face difficulties, if the overall team starts to
dysfunction. Thus, it can be said that efficient leader across the world has the ability to
manage a team (Sohmen, 2013). A prominent leader should always consider himself/herself
as a part of a team. Bill Gates is considered to be an efficient leader because he believed that
a team including the leader should work together in order to bring success. In order to inspire
a team, a leader should have a clear vision and mission. Bill Gates always formulated
strategies so that he can understand the employees working in the organisation. He
encouraged all the members in the organisation to come up with innovative ideas in order to
improve the performance of the organisation. Thus, by following the leadership style of Bill
Gates I have understood that I possess few skills which can help me to make a prominent
leader only if I work upon those skills.

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Strength and weakness of my leadership skills
In this part I have analysed the strength and weakness of my skills. Analysing the skills is of
utmost important because it can help me to show the path of becoming leader. The most
important strength of mine is I am very self-motivated. Motivating employees or followers is
one of the key task of leaders. One can only motivate another person if he/she has the ability
to motivate himself/herself. Over the years, I have understood how to keep myself motivated
even if anything in my life is going wrong. A leader should have the ability to fit in to any
group. Each and every successful leader like Barrack Hussain Obama, Bill Gates and many
other possess the ability to understand their followers or employees well. Similarly, I have the
ability to fit in to any group with no awkwardness. I am very extrovert in nature and I like to
talk to people and I am curious about knowing the life of different people. This nature of
mine is considered as one of my strength. Another trait of mine which can help me to become
a leader is that I am very focussed. I am always clear about the objectives of my life. I tend to
set objectives for myself and focus on accomplishing it. Since I am good at placing myself in
a team I also tend to follow the form of collaborative leadership style.
Though I possess few strengths but there are various weaknesses of mine which can create a
barrier for me in the path of becoming a leader. Efficient leaders help to make strategic
decisions for the management team (Carmeli, Tishler & Edmondson, 2012).
In the strength portion I have mentioned that I have the ability to fit myself in a team very
easily but while comes to working in a team one of the major drawback which I possess is
that I lack the quality of managing a team. Under pressure I tend to fail in solving the
problems of each and every team member. Another major weakness of mine is I lack
confidence when I encounter a critical situation. In my class I was given a work which I had
to complete in one day. Though I was aware of the project but while doing my project I was
becoming nervous and less confident because the deadline was very less. Critical thinking is

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considered as an introductory part when it comes to learning leadership skills. Active
strategies of learning help in improving critical thinking (Popil, 2011). I do not have the
capability to think critically. This is the major drawback which may be a barrier for me to
become a leader. Even in various organisations employers often check the critical thinking
ability before hiring any employee. I need to keep that in mind and should focus on
improving my critical thinking ability so that I can overcome all the barriers which comes in
to my way.
Situations that call for strong leadership
In today’s world leadership is of utmost importance. Organizations need a strong leader and a
strong management team in order to optimize each and every operation of the business
(Lunenburg, 2011). So, while handling any critical situation strong leadership is of utmost
importance. In an organisation, employees often suffer from various grievances. This is the
situation when strong leadership is required. Team leaders or top management authorities
should motivate the employees and try to resolve the reason which is causing the grievance.
If strong leadership is not shown in such situations, then it can reduce the margin of
organisational performance.
In today’s business environment CSR activities has become an important part of an
organisation. Organisation across the world allocates a significant amount of resources in
order to carry out socially responsible activities (Barnea and Rubin, 2010). When a company
initiates a CSR activity it increases the level of satisfaction of the external stakeholders of the
company especially the customers. On the other hand, internal stakeholder of a company
especially the board members of the organisation sometimes are dissatisfied with the CSR
initiative because it decreases the profit margin of the company. The dissatisfaction of the
board member increases because they have financial interest in the company. This rise in
conflict between the internal and the external stakeholder of the company can affect the

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reputation as well as the performance of the firm to a great extent. In such situation a strong
and efficient leader who possess great leadership skills are required.
Reflection on incorporation
It has been found out that to become a prominent leader building self-confidence is of utmost
importance. I need to be more confident while handling any situation. In the educational
environment as well as the work environment I must incorporate the skills of managing a
team which I have learned from the team management skill of Bill Gates. The skill of conflict
resolution will also help me to survive in any organisation.
Conclusion
A reflective journal has been formed in order to analyse my professional and personal values.
While writing I have introspected all possible values which I have inculcated over the years
of my education. Reflection on personal and professional values helped me to understand
whether I am fit to work in an organisation or not. In the second part of the essay I have
aligned my leadership skills with a famous leader named Bill Gates. Bill Gates is considered
as one of the prominent and efficient leader in today’s business organisation. Then I have
highlighted my strength which can help me to become a prominent leader. Along with that I
have also highlighted few weaknesses of mine which can act as a barrier in the path of me
becoming a successful leader. In the final part of the report I have addressed few situations
that require strong leadership in order to get it handled. Thus, from the essay it can be said
that in today’s world leadership in today’s world is of utmost importance.

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References
Barnea, A., & Rubin, A. (2010). Corporate social responsibility as a conflict between
shareholders. Journal of business ethics, 97(1), 71-86.
Carmeli, A., Tishler, A., & Edmondson, A. C. (2012). CEO relational leadership and strategic
decision quality in top management teams: The role of team trust and learning from
failure. Strategic Organization, 10(1), 31-54.
Herman, R. D. (2016). Executive leadership. The Jossey‐Bass handbook of nonprofit
leadership and management, 167-187
Lunenburg, F. C. (2011). Leadership versus management: A key distinction—at least in
theory. International Journal of Management, Business, and Administration, 14(1), 1-
4.
Popil, I. (2011). Promotion of critical thinking by using case studies as teaching
method. Nurse education today, 31(2), 204-207.
Puccio, G. J., Mance, M., & Murdock, M. C. (2010). Creative leadership: Skills that drive
change. Sage Publications.
Sharma, M. K., & Jain, S. (2013). Leadership management: Principles, models and
theories. Global Journal of Management and Business Studies, 3(3), 309-318.

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Sohmen, V. S. (2013). Leadership and teamwork: Two sides of the same coin. Journal of IT
and Economic Development, 4(2), 1-18.